International Crisis Group's forecasts on renewed Karabakh war 'unfounded' - official

12:47 • 02.06.17

Nagorno-Karabakh doesn’t share the International Crisis Group’s (ICG) recent forecasts that Armenia and Azerbaijan are “closer to war than at any point”, the press secretary of the country’s president said, commenting on a report released Thursday.

“It is a little bit non-understandable to us,” David Babayan told Tert.am. “The approaches sound strange in a way, as that group didn’t issue such a forecast at the beginning of last year or even before the April war.”

Highligting Azerbaijan's non-constructive policies, Babayan noted at the same time that the report makes no mention of the causes that could potentially flare up more tension. In his words, the situation in the region is misrepresented in the document.

That a war may erupt at any moment is an open secret, but that likelihood depends on the maintenance of balance between the sides, the spokesperson added. “After 22 years of prepration for a blitzkrieg, Azerbaijan practically failed. That happens very rarely in world history,” the spokesperson added.